Back at one of my favourite parks. This was actually a late planned park because I cancelled a flight to Salou, as I was originally suppose to go to PortAventura but didn't go well, so now I'm back at this lovely place!
It was a special trip because it was mine and my partners 5th year together. We spent last year for our 4th year at Liseberg, so I think we're going to make it a bit of a tradition to travel to European parks for our day. Day 1 wasn't our special day but Day 2 was, and it was awesome!
Even though I had come to the park for two days, I was only considering doing only day one for the trip. Day 1 was so terrible, I have no intention of writing about it as it's all negatives.
Day 2 on the other-hand was amazing! This was certainly worth writing about. I will include some images taken on from Day 1 at the bottom of the post. This blog will be about Day 2 (22/10/18) hence it's been named that.
We were very busy and on the move I was during day 2, all photos have been taken on my iPhone rather than my DSLR as I kept it on a locker in the Mexico area.
Arrived at the park from the park's shuttle bus service
Finally through the turnstile, we are in the park at 9am. As yesterday was a right bummer because of the park being extremely busy and the queues being over 35 mins each. I really hope we can make good from the 82,50 euros spent on the tickets each. From looking online, it actually makes no difference whether you pay online or on the day for the tickets because they are all the same price.
Two boats from Chiapas stacking one behind the other, while a maintenance team are walking along the ride doing their morning checks ready for another busy day at the park.
Chipas is certainly a very fun and highly themed Intamin flume ride with plenty of water effects being used around the ride. Being sat on the third row for my first ride on it, I thought it would have been an absolute soaker but it wasn't. With the boat being full I thought everyone would have been absolute drenched like Valhalla but unfortunately you only get sprayed.
Time first our ride the day and it was something we missed yesterday. Black Mamba opened in 2006 and is a Bolliger & Mabillard Inverted Coaster. I'm not too sure where to rank it with the other B&M inverts I've been on, but this is a really fun one.
I've only seen photos of Maus Au Chocolat from the station so the rest of the ride is a surprise to me. Built by Dutch manufacturer ETF Ride System, this single rail track ride is probably my second favourite indoor tracked ride I've been on. The building and station is very well themed and reminds me a lot of Ratatouille.
I haven't got a lot to nag about the ride except the guns/shooter which are very annoying. You have to yank a cord of string towards yourself which does tire your arms a lot if you're doing it very constantly which I did so my arms started to ache towards the end of the ride. The ride system is very interesting as you wear 3D glasses, the cars spin around, and you're shooting at large projection screens.
Time for a ride on Winjas: Fear. I love this ride so much and it's probably the most unique ride I have ever been on considering all the special elements and sections on ride. Considering the age for the ride as well, Maurer Söhne have done a great job for this ride, and Fear is my favourite track on WInjas.
Just like Temple In The Night Hawk, Winjas also displays it's manufacturer/builders plate by the ride. This one can be seen as the end of the stairs at the exit before you see your photos.
Back to Hollywood Tour. This classic 1990 Intamin dark boat ride. It's really starting to show it's ages and it would be a shame to see it go in the next few years, but it's one of those things if it does. It does and has aged, but I can only hope that the park can invest and keep the ride running a bit more longer. When this closes in the future, Temple In The Night Hawk probably won't have much of a future as well because both rides share the same building.
It's funny as well because my favourite scene of the whole ride is after the first drop. The caved and lit up area looks amazing and to know it was all man made, and for it to replicate a cave, it's very nice and awesome.
I know it's the Hollywood Tour, and this scene is to somehow be aimed at a film production for Tarazan. It just doesn't seem great at all. Don't get me wrong, it's probably perfect for younger riders. But hey-ho. I'm just a little bit more critical in my opinion because I'm an older rider and have bit more higher expectations.
Oh look Drayton, a block section. Maybe if you had one Pirate Adventure would probably be operating to this day.
At every block section there is an platform which is very handy in the event of an evacuation.
After Hollywood Tour it is time for Temple Of The Night Hawk. What's even better about it is that it has a walk on queue. YES!!!!!!!! I love this indoor Vekoma MK-900 with a custom layout. It's a classic to the park and is the oldest operating roller coaster on the park.
As much as what others dislike this ride. I adore this ride a lot. It's one of my favourite coasters at the park, not necessarily to do with thrill, speed or inversions. It's a very chilled, smooth and quiet coaster. Just letting your mind set as the train navigates along the track in pure darkness. It's a long layout as well and includes three chain lift hills.
F.L.Y. is coming along really nice with it's facade. Looking at photos others have posted about it, I am looking forward to riding this in the near future.
Not even 12am just yet and in queue at the front for Taron. I guess 7 current rides is good. The park isn't too busy but Taron would still have a 40 min+ queue throughout the day without a doubt.
Back to Geister Rikscha. The first time I went to the park I never rode this and I've only seen images of the sets, and not the transit system so this was completely all new to me. Phantasialand really does have some classic and unique rides at the park and during the whole day it was on a 5 min queue, but in actuality it was walk on.
I love this ride system so much. Why didn't more parks get this as it's amazing and I've never came across something like this. It is an endless tracked ride meaning that all the cars, 100 of them are connected together, travelling at the same speed, and it's a wonderfully amazing ride experience. What even took me by surprise is when I did the research into this ride, it was manufactured by Schwarzkopf, and that took me even more by surprise. Looking more into the history of the park, Schwarzkopf have provided many rides to the park in the past.
Hello there, fellow stranger.
Time for food. We headed off after Geister Rikscha to the China Snack food outlet as it was not just the closest, we had a look at the menu in the morning and it looked interesting. Stood in the queue ready to be served. It took about 5-10 minutes to get served, I asked for a chicken nugget meal, and the food was made and served ready in a matter of seconds. No waiting at all. I said I was paying on card and it was at that point the cashier said to me they don't accept card. Cash only. What an absolute pain in the arse. I asked where the closest ATM machine is, hoping that it's somewhere in the China area that I can quickly run over to but nope. Only Berlin had an ATM so what the server did was took my food and binned it.
So we headed off to Berlin to use the ATM as it is the only place place in the park which has one, which to be fair for a park like this, you'd kind of expect it to have at least 1 ATM machine per two are at least. All the eateries/restaurants that we went to was pay by cash only. It's a shame because back in China I ordered the food, they served it me and once I said that I was paying by card, they took the food away and binned it. It was a shame but THERE WERE NO SIGNS SAYING CASH ONLY.
I total it cost 14,50 euros. Was it worth it? I'm really not sure.
The only downers were that the fries were heavily salted. Even worse than McDonald's. The chicken nuggets were absolutely gorgeous though!
The Berlin street is looking quite busy and Das verrückte Hotel Tartüff was on a 25 minute wait. Best to head over to Wellenflug since it was near enough walk on.
In queue for the next ride. The water effect really does make the ride look fabulous and a one of a kind attraction. Even though Wave Swingers are very common at theme/amusement parks, this one is probably the most themed one with it's center piece, and the water jets really does the ride justice. Here's another Zierer Wave Swinger to tick off the credit list.
The only way to see the builders name on the ride is to look at the two person seats and look at the small riders seat belts. They should be on there.
Quick selfie before we're checked and then dispatched.
Time for one of many Preston & Barbieri rides at the park, and this one is a water ride called Watobako. It's interesting as well but also not surprised that smaller children have to wear life jackets.
Very nice ride and relaxing ride, with a very pointless water gun feature. Like really. It's very pointless. Whenever you use the water gun (if it's working) you hit the targets and you kinda think that when you hit it a splash trigger will happen causing you to get a little bit wet. But no. It's just a scenic boat ride in my opinion.
When you come into the station the boat does rattle a lot. It wasn't a terrible ride, but was it boring and pointless? Yeah, I'd say so. It's more of a scenic and lazy boat ride than a interactive water ride. No working water effects, targets are pointless.
After a few more rides, it's now time to have a few minutes to chill out and watch Chiapas as we have a drink. This is not the best of quality photos, but the timing is great!
It has been an amazing day for quite a few reasons, but most importantly myself and my partner shared our fifth year together at the park. And the day kept on getting better because as we were sat down drinking, I received a phone call offering me a job, which I took which is great.
I wonder how many flume rides are out there that uses trim brakes?
Time for what is suppose to be the last ride of the day. It's coming to the end of the day and we've only done Taron once all day. We needed to have at least one more ride on it and maybe Talocan at a push.
Well... never mind. Guests have been evacuated from Taron due to the ride experiencing a technical difficulty. Might as well head off to a different ride quickly because if it is closed for the rest of the day there will be a very large horde of guests heading off to the next thrilling roller coaster. So as soon as I got a few photos, we headed off to Black Mamba as it wasn't too far, and a group of guests were heading towards us.
So we decided to ride Black Mamba for the last ride of today and what better way to end it is to have a front row ride. I was right about the guests at Taron because most of them came over to here.
After grabbing our stuff from the locker in the Mexico area and skipping out on Talocan. We have came to the end of our day, and now it's time to quickly head over to the Phantasialand bus before everyone heads to it. Better to be the first ones there and secure a seat because the bus gets really busy.
Amazing and it was great to be back and ride so many. It was a massive shame that Day 1 wasn't good but it's just one of those things, and I completely prejudged that Sunday wouldn't be as busy, but I was wrong. Very wrong indeed.
Here's some photos from Day 1:
Here's a geeky panel shot of the Vekoma Paratower called Tittle Tattle Tree.
